After school, Midas, Sam and Mr. Lee met in room B3. There was already a line of students and a few faculty members down the hall and up the stairs.

The nurse had re-wrapped Midas' hand, bandaged Sam's ankle and loaned her a crutch for the day. Sam had begged the nurse not to call her parents, desperate to be present for the interviews.

Now, Sam was practically bouncing with excitement. She had entered the room carrying three plastic cups. Handing one each to Midas and Mr. Lee, they discovered they were filled with butter-mints.

"What's this for?" Mr. Lee asked, peering into the cup as if it held all of life's answers.

"To keep our energy up," Sam answered. "There's a lot of people out there; we're going to be here for a while."

"No thanks," Midas said, trying to hand the cup back. "I don't like mint."

Sam shrugged, not taking the cup.

"Just keep it," she said.

"Okay," Mr. Lee said, clasping his hands together. "Let's get this over with, shall we? What exactly are we looking for?"

"Amazing talents and skills," Sam replied.

"Anything useful to a 'super team' of sorts," Midas added as he contemplated the cup of mints and tried to decide what to do with it.

Mr. Lee nodded. "Got it. Where do we sit?"

Sam pointed to a long table. "We can all sit there."

Mr. Lee harrumphed disapprovingly.

"What is this, America's Got Talent?" he scoffed. "No. We'll sit at individual tables so we can interview three people at once and then collaborate over results afterwards. Much more effective."

Sam looked at Midas and shrugged. "I'm fine with that if you are."

Midas nodded. "Let's get started."

<><><><><><><>

"Name?" Midas called.

"Daniel Pots," replied the muscular boy who stood before him.

"And what's your ability?" Midas asked.

"I'm the captain of the lacrosse team," Daniel answered smugly.

Midas waited for half a beat.

"... That's it?" he finally asked.

Daniel looked uncertain for a moment. "Yes?"

Midas shook his head.

"Next!" he shouted.

<><><><><><><>

"Stacy!" Sam exclaimed. "Glad to see you! You have a talent?"

Stacy grinned. "I'm going to sing."

Sam's smile faltered for half a second. "Uh, great! Give it your best."

Stacy opened her mouth.

"Think of meeeeeee, think of me fondly when we say gooooodbyeeeee..."

Sam cringed as Stacy continued to belt out the rest of the songs, unaware of how terrible a singer she was.

"Um... Stacy?" Sam tried to interrupt. Stacy, who's eyes were shut tight with concentration, didn't notice.

"On that daaaaaay, that not so distant daaaay, when you are-"

"Will someone get her out of here?" Mr. Lee finally shouted, interrupting his own interview.

Stacy stopped singing abruptly.

"Sorry," Sam said, trying to soften the blow. "You did great, but it's not really what we're looking for and-"

Stacy burst into tears and fled from the room.

Sam bit her lip and watched her go. This was going to be harder than she'd thought.

<><><><><><><>

"Sorry about that," Mr. Lee was telling the student in front of him. "Continue?"

"A-S-T-I-C-I-T-Y," the student spelled.

"Okay, you spelled neuroplasticity," Mr. Lee said. "Are you planning on spelling being your super ability?"

"Um..."

"Are you going to spell your enemies away?" Mr. Lee continued.

The student was silent for a moment before saying, "I can spell a longer word."

Mr. Lee rolled his eyes. "How about you spell 'autochthonous' on your way to the door? Thanks for trying out; bye."

<><><><><><><>

And so it continued, Midas barely talking to or looking at the contestant, Sam sugar coating everything and Mr. Lee being as rude as possible. They saw dancers, athletes, artists, skaters, computer wizards, trivia buffs and more.

Midas was losing patience and hope. All of these kids were terribly ordinary.

"Name," he muttered as the next person walked in, looking down at the desk.

"Willow Molona," replied a timid voice.

Midas glanced up in surprise. It was that odd girl that had been in the office on his first day.

"Talent?" Midas asked, crossing his fingers.

"I can do contortions," Willow said.

"What? No, no, that's useless," Midas said. "Forget that, do what you were doing in the office that day."

"Um... okay," Willow said. She walked to an empty chair and sat down. Midas waited for a minute.

"Well?" Midas said impatiently. "Are you going to do it or not?"

Willow looked confused. "All I did in the office was sit down."

"Nooo!" Midas howled. "Remember when you scared the office lady? You entered the room so quietly, I didn't even hear you come in. Do whatever you were doing then."

"How should I do that?" Willow asked.

Midas glanced over at Sam, who was trying to kindly turn away an excited violinist.

"Go steal a mint out of Sam's cup," he said. "Don't let her see you."

Willow nodded and began to approach Sam from behind. Just as before, she made absolutely no sound as she walked. With Sam completely oblivious, Willow reached into the plastic cup, pulled out a mint and walked back to Midas.

Midas nodded, mildly impressed.

"One last test," Midas said. He took his own cup of mints and spilled them out onto the ground, where they scattered this way and that.

"Midas!" Sam yelled. "What is wrong with you?"

"Calm down, it's part of the test," Midas told her. Turning to Willow, he said, "Okay, walk across the floor without making any noise."

Willow looked at the mints, apparently unconcerned. She crossed the floor silently with ease, never stepping on a single mint. When she finally reached the desk, Midas was nodding slowly.

"This just might work..." he muttered. To Willow he said, "You did good. Results will be posted on the board tomorrow, check it out."

Willow nodded and smiled slightly.

"Thank you," she replied before leaving. Midas made a quick note of her name before calling for the next person.

<><><><><><><>

    "Nice to meet you, Taro," Sam chirped. "What's your talent?"

    Taro stood absently eating a bag of skittles.

    "Not sure yet," Taro said. "I thought I'd think of something by the time I got to the front of the line, but..." Taro just grinned and shrugged his shoulders.

    Sam cocked her head to the side. "But if you didn't have a talent, why did you come to try out?" she asked.

    Taro sighed. "To be honest, I just need an excuse to stay out of the house."

    "So... you don't-" Sam was cut off suddenly when a card whizzed past her ear and landed on her desk. "Hey!" she shouted.

    "Sorry!" called Nate, who was being interviewed by Mr. Lee.

    Mr. Lee was cracking up. "Did you see that? This kid's amazing!"

    "Hey, Sam, what was the card?" Nate asked.

    Sam read the card. "Four of spades."

    "That was my card!" Mr. Lee exclaimed.

    Sam attempted to lob the card back to Nate, with much less success. Finally she turned back to Taro.

    "So, what you're saying is you don't have a talent to show me?" she asked.

    "Um... yes," Taro confirmed. "If I had some more time I might be able to come up with something."

    Sam smiled. "Well, if you want to wait in line again and see if you can think of anything, that'd be fine."

    Taro nodded. "Yeah, I think I'll do that. Thanks."

    Sam slumped in her chair after he left, feeling exhausted.

<><><><><><><>

    "We're not going outside," Midas said.

    Rachel crossed her arms. "Oh, come on! Why not?"

    "We have fifty more people to interview, we can't put them on hold," Midas argued. "Can't you just show us your talent in here?"

"No," Rachel insisted. "I need to show you outside."

A paper airplane floated lazily past her eyes. She snatched it out of the air and unfolded it.

Take a seat

Take a seat?

Rachel waved the paper at Evan, who was finishing up his interview with Sam.

"What is this supposed to mean?" she demanded.

Evan just smirked and walked out of the room.

After thinking for a moment, Rachel finally asked, "If I wait in here until all the other interviews are over, can we go outside?"

Midas considered this. "Sure," he finally said. "Have a seat."

Rachel flopped into a chair on the other side of the room and settled in for a long wait.

<><><><><><><>

Scores of interviews later, the exhausted trio finally came to the last contestant.

"Back again, Taro?" Sam asked. "What do you have?"

Taro silently walked to the center of the room, where he drew his hands up to his mouth and blew air through his cupped hands. A loud whistle sound came out. He returned his arms to his sides.

"Uh..." Sam said, "Was that it?"

"Yep," Taro said.

"Get out," Mr. Lee huffed.

Taro sighed and trudged out of the room.

"Well, that's the last one," Mr. Lee said, standing up.

"Actually, you have one more," Rachel reminded.

"Okay, Rachel, but make it quick," Midas urged.

"Don't worry, it won't take long at all," Rachel boasted, leading the others outside.

The sun was just beginning to set and the air outside was frigid. Rachel approached the flag pole, which was situated very close to the brick wall of the school building. She stood between the pole and the wall.

"Y'all watching?" she shouted.

"Watching and waiting," Mr. Lee answered. Midas and Sam stood in silent anticipation.

Without another word, Rachel braced herself between the flag pole and the wall and began to scramble upwards.

"She's climbing the wall," Sam whispered, her mouth slightly open.

Rachel finally reached the roof and swung herself over the edge. Peeking down she yelled, "Do I win?"

"You'll find out tomorrow," Midas shouted as she began her descent. In his mind, however, he knew exactly who would be joining SVE. At last, he would have his team.